The Billionaire’s Prodigal Wife
Chapter 37

“Hey, she’s used me to,” Savannah defended her actions. “Remember when we went line dancing at the country bar? You almost took me on the pool table.”

Alessandro choked on his drink at Savannah’s words and Mackenna patted his back hard. “Explain.”

“No,” Mackenna answered back. “I don’t have to.” She held his glare. “Fine, I’ll tell the story but tit for tat. Admit first you came back from Milan because Nuncio told you we were going out tonight and you were going to make me leave when you first came in.”

“I admit it,” he knew no shame at his admission. “Look at you.”

“What’s wrong with how I look?” She looked down at her dress which minutes before Padma had complimented.

“Nothing is wrong with it,” he corrected her, “you are stunning, and I don’t want to share.”

“I’m not yours to share.”

“Which is why you’re still seated and not over my shoulder caveman style,” he tapped her nose. “Stop being argumentative. You look lovely.”

“Pfft,” she waved at him.

“When did you almost have s*x on a pool table with Savannah?”

“You two are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Cassidy interrupted the argument. “Have you always been this fiery or is this just since the whole tabloid kerfuffle.”

“Always,” Mackenna answered seriously. “Since the day he tried to run me over with his sports car.”

“I thought she was suicidal because she jumped in front of my car,” he corrected resting his elbows on the table leaning into the conversation, aware he was enjoying himself. “Then she slapped me and ran like a little coward.”

“Look at him,” Mackenna said to Cassidy, “if you slapped him?”

“I’d run to hills and never come back.” At his surprise she shrugged. “Sorry man but you’re intimidating as hell. You’re not the kind of person girls like us go slapping.”

“Girls like you?”

“Me, Maisy, Mac, Savanna and Padma,” she waved at the table around them, “normal girls who grew up normally. You’re not normal.”

Alessandro laughed at her words. “I assure you, as Mackenna said earlier, just a man.”

“In a god’s body,” Maisy looked him up and down. “You must work out for days and eat nothing but spinach.”

“Speaking of food,” Mackenna changed the subject, not keen on how her friends were undressing him with their eyes. They were supposed to just be friends, but she was feeling suddenly possessive. “It’s coming and I need something to sop up this booze floating in my tummy.” She motioned to Alessandro, “we ordered enough to feed an army, no need to order anything else.”

He studied her as she piled a bunch of food on a plate for them both. Whether she realized it or not, she was still treating him as her husband, and he draped his arm over the back of her chair. He took a skewer of meat and eyed it curiously.

“Lamb,” she grabbed his hand and took a bite off his kebab.

“Careful,” Derrick warned him, “she has a habit of stealing everyone’s food when she’s drunk.”

“Do you get drunk often?”

While nobody else would have noticed the edge of his question, Mackenna heard it instantly and laughed. “Alessandro. I told you before. Occasionally we would splurge, or we would flirt our way through a handful of drinks but it’s not something I do a bunch. Derrick is just making fun of me because he walked us home one night and I stole his hotdog we got from a street vendor.” She shrugged. “I dropped mine down a grate in the road.”

“Good thing it went in the grate because if it had landed on the road, I’m sure she would have eaten it,” Derrick told Padma with a smirk. “Also, she ate my hotdog in two bites. It was horrifying.” He c****d his head suddenly. “I’m starting to wonder what the hell I was attracted to.”

She threw her head back and laughed uproariously at his comment. She took grape leaves stuffed with meat in her fingers and took a bite and offered the rest of Savannah who had reached for it. She popped it in her mouth.

“And there’s why everyone thought they were lovers,” Maisy pointed out the intimate movement. “Then we all realized they’re more like twins. They’re both damaged souls who needed each other to heal.” The table was quiet as everyone turned to look at her. “It’s true. Mac always gives off vibes to make you want to protect her, take care of her, and kill anyone who would dare screw with her. Savannah is tough as nails but so damn vulnerable and soft inside. It’s no wonder they gravitate to each other.”

It was Savannah’s turn to say she needed another drink.

The rest of dinner passed with lots of laughter and teasing and Mackenna relaxed against Alessandro’s arm against her chair and noted Nuncio’s hand was possessively on Savannah’s thigh and she was holding onto it, her fingers laced between them.

She looked to Alessandro. “We’re going dancing at the new Latin club I didn’t go to last weekend. Are you coming?”

“Am I invited?”

“Yes,” she held his gaze.

“I don’t know if I can watch you dance the samba with someone else.” The meaning in his gaze was clear.

“Then don’t,” she replied simply. “You can keep me occupied.”

As they stepped outside, she saw Carlos’ and Rio waiting patiently lounging against a pole. She eyed him curiously. “How did you get here without the hoards of paparazzi? They’ve pissed off since you left for Milan. Only a handful of stragglers have been around.”

He smirked, “I took a page out of your book.”

“What’s that?”

“My flight leaving tomorrow still has my name on the manifest. A friend of mine was flying to Los Angeles. He did a pitstop for me along the way. I chartered a private plane from Miami to here. I came right here from the airstrip.” He dropped his arm over her shoulder as they walked toward the dance club a few streets over, tucking her against him. “As far as the reporters camped outside my house and the office in Milan, I’m still in Italy. I ran away.”

“You’re devious.”

“Learned from the best,” he dropped a k**s to the top of her head unable to resist. “Is the red hair thing permanent?”

“No,” she laughed at his question. “Don’t like it?”

“I actually really like it. The lipstick too. I’ve never seen you in glam make-up before.” He twirled her ponytail around his fist, “but this is something else. I’ve never seen you in a high pony before and it’s making me want to do all kinds of bad things.”

The devil in her dared to ask, “such as?”

“Such as taking my three-month friendship off the damn table, throwing you in the darkness of the next alley and having you right there,” he bent his head to whisper in her ear. He laughed when she stopped dead in her tracks. “But I’m a man of my word so keep walking Mackenna and take me dancing.”

She was silent under his arm, feeling strangely disappointed in his comments. This was what she wanted. She had wanted to end things with him and while she had agreed to give him three months of friendship, she had ultimately believed at the end of it she could walk away. Now, tucked under his arm, getting ready to enter a dance club with him, she was fighting the desire to throw him into an alley way.

“Savannah!” the bouncer at the door hollered in their direction and then saw Mackenna behind her. “Mac!” he threw his arms wide.

“Ray?” Mackenna looked at the man before racing out of Alessandro’s arms to lunge at the man and wrap her legs around his waist and be twirled in a big bear hug. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Tucson.”

“I was but then my mom got all sulky I was so far away, so I moved back. When Emilio opened this place, he asked me to head up his security team. Let’s face it, I’m the biggest guy he knows.” He slowly set her on her feet. He motioned to the group and pointed to the person stamping hands. “No cover for these folks. They’re my family.”

Mackenna kissed his cheek. “You come replace me in there. You owe me a dance.” She pulled Alessandro closer. “Alessandro, this is Ray. Ray is a very good friend of mine. Ray this is Alessandro.”

Ray pointed to Mackenna. “Hey, you take good care of her. She’s special.”

Before Alessandro could ask any questions though, Mackenna was pulling him into the club and her friends, and his guards close on their heels. Mackenna beelined for the bathroom with the girls in tow.

Derrick clapped him on the back. “You want the details?”

Alessandro eyed Derrick thoughtfully before answering. “Yes, every sordid one.”

“There isn’t anything sordid.” He laughed. “Here’s the thing about Mac, why our hospital loves her and why nobody can replace her. The guy out there is only one of hundreds of people she has helped. She doesn’t just sort out the billing. Three years ago, his mom got shot in a drive-by shooting. It was touch and go. Mac managed the insurance billing and there was none. His mom had no insurance. In America it’s different than in Europe. No insurance means no health care or going into such debt you never recover. Mac was able to work with a couple of different organizations to replace ways to cover every single one of her bills and then made sure her need for in-home care was covered too.”

Alessandro was stunned. “She did?”

“It’s not why Ray loves her though. She also sat with him while his mom was in surgery. She sat with him, brought him coffee, made him smile while she was in ICU. She held his hand when his mom woke up and didn’t recognize him at first. His mom is the only family he had and so Mac stepped up and functioned as his family until his momma was okay.” Derrick made sure Alessandro understood. “The thing is Alessandro, Mac has done it hundreds of times. Of all the members of our staff, she has more people going to talk to our Chief of Staff about her than anyone else and it’s always about how kind she is. Nobody expects the person overseeing their hospital bills to be sweet, kind, and compassionate. There are easily hundreds of people who have written the hospital, just about Mac.”

Derrick watched as the girls all came from the bathroom and headed for the bar. “Mac is what we call here in Phoenix, good people. She’s simply good, down to her core. She has more brothers and sisters in this city because of her kindness, if anything ever happened to her, it would be a catastrophe. When news got out of her car accident, the hospital was flooded with calls of people asking if she was okay. I know your intention is to bring her back to Milan, and man, as much as it pains me to say, I know she loves you and eventually she’ll replace her way back to you, but Phoenix will be a lesser city without her in it.”

He walked away then and headed in the direction of the bar.

Nuncio looked at him. “It explains why we can’t walk down the street without people saying hi.”

“It sure does,” he was stunned at what the doctor had just told him. Mackenna had made her life here, had made a family where she had none. She had left the tiny bubble he’d kept her in and spread her wings and had become an invaluable asset to her employer and her community.

“Alessandro,” Carlos’ interrupted his thoughts, “unless you want us beating the hell out of every man in this bar, your girl looks good tonight and you’ve left her unattended. Go take her dancing.” He then pointed at Nuncio, “you’re now off the clock. Rio will cover Mackenna until Stephano gets here.”

“I’m here to do a job,” Nuncio protested.

“Yeah, and Mom ripped me a new one when I saw her yesterday about your bad attitude. Get laid man. Go.” He motioned to the doctor. “She’s good for you. We all like her.”

Alessandro gripped Nuncio’s shoulder. “She’s a good person Nuncio. If you hurt her though, Mackenna will probably boil your balls for breakfast.”

“Heh,” he shrugged, “she’s a terrible cook. She wouldn’t be able to get the water to temp.”

They all laughed as the group of men headed in Mackenna’s direction. True to Carlos’ prediction, guys were already hitting up on Mackenna and she was laughing and refusing to dance with a young guy, probably closer to her age. He reached out and spun her around and drew her into his arms. She gripped her drink tightly between them, wrapping her tongue around the straw and her eyes shining brightly.

“We did a shot of tequila.”

“Dance with me,” he commanded her taking her drink from her hand and noticing she had drunk it to the bottom already. He put the empty glass on the bar top and led her to the floor.

As they stepped to the floor the music changed and the DJ called all the salsa dancers to the floor. Alessandro paused, “you up for this?”

She giggled at him and tapped him on the nose. “Oh, my sweet naïve little man,” she was definitely drunk she thought wickedly, “you have no idea.”